Why Is Mental Health Still Taboo In the Black Community?

By Shammara Lawrence


in the event if you've spoken up about your mental health recently, you’re not alone: for several, the topic is finally being destigmatized, and thanks in part to social media, plenty of us are finding and making room to express their feelings. However there really is still work to be done for a few people — namely, in the Black community, where talking about mental health can still feel largely taboo.


A major reason for this comes down to cultural teachings, and the reality that several members of the community don’t have the resources to learn and understand the topic. Black parents are usually instill into their children the belief that we must routinely be resilient no matter what hurdles we face, and many of us are encouraged to lean on our spirituality while in our low moments rather than seek out support from mental nutrition experts. As soon as someone decides to be susceptible about what they’re going through, they are usually labeled as susceptible by their peers and elders — especially gentlemen, given that they are conditioned since adolescence by means of the media and family member members to never cry or show emotion. As a result, several Black males become hesitant to talk about their mental health struggles with anyone, let alone a therapist: According to the CDC, males of color aged 18 to 44 who experience day-to-day feelings of depression or anxiety are 26.4% much less likely than white males to make use of mental health treatments like medication or therapy.


One way to make sure that we start to heal is to have more open conversations about mental health inside of the Black community. For MTV News’s inaugural Sound On panel, we invited athlete Rashad Jennings, writer Clarkisha Kent, actor Kendrick Sampson, rapper Kodie Shane, and activist Kat Blaque to come with each other for a roundtable discussion. Each with different backgrounds and points of view on a couple of intense topics, they were all game to speak about the significance of looking immediately after your mental health and seeking out support while you need it.


As Sampson, who has worked on How to Get Away With Murder and Insecure, notes, “Being a person of color in this nation, no matter where you grew up, you're still place on Earth into a hostile environment.” Specifically, Black people frequently have to deal with racialized trauma from the issues they face as a result of structural racism and inequalities.


It’s a trauma that can manifest in a host of mental health issues, including generic stress. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, African-Americans are 10% more likely to experience serious psychological distress in the form of conditions like major depression, PTSD, and anxiety than non-white Latinx people.


That stress can affect you both IRL and through digital screens. On the news and social media, black folks are usually being bombarded with images and videos of brutalized black bodies, which can take a toll on anyone. “Back Whenever I was a kid, I couldn’t visualize somebody get shot. I've never seen nobody perish. Right now my little brother can watch a person get shot [online]. It’s crazy As soon as I think about that,” Shane, who dropped her debut album Young Heartthrob in 2018, points out. All the panelists admitted to having either dealt with mental health issues and trauma in their lives or know someone close to them who have.


They’re far from alone, nevertheless despite the rising assortment of Black people dealing of psychological distress every year, as a collective we have a very low rate of seeking out professional help, partially due to the prevailing belief that asking for a helping hand means you’ve failed as a person. “I think there’s a lot of pride with plenty of people [and] the reason they don’t desire to get counseling. Some days you visualize it as a form of weakness. That’s a myth that a lot of people purchase into,” says Jennings, a former NFL running back and Dancing with the Stars champion.


Furthermore, as soon as you’re being raised around people who some days speak negatively about you, you could go years with living with internalized self-loathing that becomes a segment of your day-to-day life. As a young woman, Kent used to get grief about her weight from her parents. “I'm a big girl and I'm OK with that. However my parents are like, not really. So there was a lot of fat antagonism,” the writer recalls. “Even though I'm out of that environment right now, the way my depression specifically manifests is that you still hear that negative talk however right now it's coming from [within].”


Without a support system of individuals who can empathize and allocate guidance, many Black people find themselves self-medicating, or going into isolation sort in attempt to cope. Yet such strategies can only help for so long — and those coping mechanisms can negatively impact someone’s life in the long run.


Jennings understands that reality all also well. His father, a military veteran, suffered with undiagnosed PTSD right after retiring on disability and resisted to go to counseling for years, the younger Jennings right now notes. “He didn't want anybody else giving their suggestion about what he was going through. And he acted out in other ways ... He drank almost every day. He smoked cigarettes almost every day. [And] he slowly began to separate himself from the family,” Jennings explains. It was only any time if he saw his son blossom into a successful and mature individual that Jennings’s dad started to adopt healthy habits in his own life.


There isn’t any one fix for mental health issues, yet, and even as soon as someone is open to getting assistance, they are often feel hindered by the high medical bills that often come and also professional help. “I remember any time As soon as I was in college and I was looking at different therapies that I might go to, it was expensive,” Blaque, a YouTube creator and activist, says. “Therapy sessions were hundreds of dollars. And I was a college student.”


Indeed, therapists generally charge between $75 to $150 a session, some days upwards of $200. And while several insurance businesses generally cover most kinds of therapy, you still have to pay out a monthly fee to be insured. Moreover, many therapists elect not to take insurance due to the challenges that come with filing mental-health related claims, so patients can often left having to pay out of pocket.


Thankfully, there really are countless low-cost and free mental health resources out there for people experiencing distress. “It's good to talk about your emotions, it's good to cry,” Jennings stresses. “Get it all out, and [then] begin to move forward.” Your life and mental health matter — and one of the big ways to take issues into your own hands is to speak up, and join the conversation.


If you or someone you know is struggling with their emotional health, head to halfofus.Com for ways to get help.